James Gunn To Direct Superman: Legacy For Warner Bros.

James Gunn, the co-head of DC Studios, has officially announced that he will be directing Superman: Legacy. The Hollywood Reporter was first to report.

Superman: Legacy is set to be the first major film of the Gunn-Safran era, with a scheduled release date of July 11, 2025, according to Warner Bros. The movie will explore Superman’s balancing of his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing, as he embodies truth, justice, and the American way. Peter Safran told The Hollywood Reporter in late January that Superman is “kindness in a world that thinks that kindness is old-fashioned.”

Superman will not be played by Henry Cavill, who portrayed the superhero in previous films. After Gunn and Safran took over DC, they decided to go in a younger direction for the hero.

This film will mark Gunn’s first time directing a major superhero, as he has previously made a name for himself by, in turn, transforming lesser known characters like Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and turning into household names. He also elevated DC characters such as Polka-Dot Man and King Shark to big-screen status in The Suicide Squad, which received strong reviews.

Superman: Legacy is one of the projects that Gunn and Safran teased as part of Chapter 1: God and Monsters. This is billed as an overarching story told via different TV shows and films. Gunn has been writing the script for this project since before his appointment as co-head of DC Studios in November, and it was widely expected that he would direct the film.